07/02/2017 - Mná 1916 exhibiting at Donegal County Museum

A special exhibition telling the stories of 300 of Ireland’s mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives involved in the 1916 Rising, is on display at the County Museum, in Letterkenny until Thursday, 30th March 2017.

Visitors to the exhibition can explore this remarkable variety of previously unseen items, from personal objects, images and documentation, to newly digitised birth, death, marriage and census records from private and public collections.

The exhibition outlines how members of Cumann na mBan mobilised to support the Volunteers, arriving in Dublin from places such as Glasgow, London, and Liverpool. Visitors can hear the story of music teacher Annie Higgins, dispatched from the GPO with a message for rebels in the North but arrested along her way, the note confiscated, its contents never revealed. Previously unseen images of key female characters, on loan from the collection of Sorcha MacMahon, are also on display.

Mná 1916 – Women 1916 is curated by Sinead McCoole, an author and historian whose collaborations and expertise in many areas of Irish civil history, including the Rising, have been received with acclaim both at home and abroad. Enhanced by material from the Military Archives, the National Library of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland, it’s a fitting tribute to the resilience and ability of those previously considered the ‘fairer’ sex.

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day on the 8 March 2017 women of all ages, from all over Donegal and the North West are being invited to join in a collective conversation about women’s lifetime experiences at an event in the Regional Cultural Centre and in the Donegal County Museum in Letterkenny. Sinead McCoole, author of Easter Widows and curator of Mná 1916-Women 1916 will visit the Donegal County Museum to give a guided tour of this exhibition during this event on International Women’s Day.

Further information on this event will be made available in the coming weeks.